This article presents a description of the major campaigns of adult literacy in the revolutionary period in Portugal, between the years 1974 and 1977. The campaigns aimed to address the problem of extremely low levels of formal education and high levels of adult illiteracy, and were organized by different movements, from the military to political youth organizations. In all cases, Paulo Freire's theory and methods were an important reference to these initiatives of popular education even if, in some cases, these were clearly top-down approaches, while others advocated a bottomup perspective. We will start by an analysis of the rationale of these movements based on documents produced at the period and a literature review. Then, retrospective interviews with two women participating in these campaigns are used to illustrate these experiences and their perceived impact on themselves and the adults involved. Not surprisingly, the impact of these literacy campaigns is perceived as significant both for the population, particularly older women, but mainly for the young literacy mediators who seem to have experienced this as a life-changing event. Even though this is a preliminary stage of the research, results suggest the significance of gender inequality and poverty as markers in the lived experience of these campaigns, and the high levels of hope and political mobilization of the young people involved, even with various degrees of ideological commitment.

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